<p>I am a high school junior wanting to attend a school without a huge "party" atmosphere (drinking, drugs, etc.). I am not naive, and I realize that I will find this behavior at any school in the country. Yet I figure that partying is more common at some schools than at others. Academics come first for me, but I still want to have fun (without drinking, etc.). What schools would you add or take off my list based on this?<br>
My list is Stanford, Princeton, Rice, Wash-U, Duke, Notre Dame, Emory, USC, Michigan, IU, Purdue, and Miami of Ohio.
Thanks in advance! This seems like a wise group of parents.</p>
<p>You might need to take them all off your list. I'm only partially kidding. Drinking is a big part of college life- except at BYU and some of the smaller Christian schools. It is a BIG part of life at Rice and the state universities. You can certainly find ways to have fun and make friends without drinking at any of the schools you mentioned, but drinking will be a big part of the social environment.</p>
<p>I second what the previous poster said. The schools on your list are pretty social as well as academically strong; they almost certainly provide opportunities for people of all tastes and habits to have fun.</p>
<p>From friends that go there, I've heard Miami of Ohio is a HUGE drinking school. The party scene at UMich is big, too, but the student body is large enough that you can easily find people interested in other things.</p>
<p>I also have a similar concern. I love to have fun and go out with friends, but I'm not a drinker, druggy nor am I a hardcore partier. Of the following schools, which are the most inclined to be party schools? </p>
<p>..University of Miami, University of Rochester, UC Davis, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, UCLA .. any of the UC's and CSU's for that matter..</p>
<p>Also, I know everyone says that "even if you don't drink you'll still make friends.." well how true is this? how do u make friends when everyone around u is doing something you don't believe in? What do students who dont drink do in their free time or on weekends?</p>
<p>I disagree. There are signficant diffferences in the levels of heavy drinking at various schools and significant differences in the degree to which non-drinkers are marginalized in the social scene.</p>
<p>For example, one of the schools on your list, Miami Ohio, is known to have one of the largest drinking scenes in the country.</p>
<p>Here are three tips:</p>
<p>Read the blurbs on each school in the Fiske Guide and Princeton review. When a school is known to have a particularly strong drinking culture, it will be noted. When a school is described as "academic" or "not much of a party school" that means that the heavy drinking scene is smaller. U Chicago and Swarthmore would be two examples.</p>
<p>Get you your guidebooks or the online edition of US News and record the percentage of fraternity membership. Frat membership (and especially residential frat houses) is the factor with the largest single correlation to high surveyed binge drinking rates. If you want a heavy drinking culture, choose a school with high rates of fraternity members. If you don't want a heavy drinking culture, look elsewhere.</p>
<p>Find the online edititon of the student newspaper and do a search for "alcohol poisoning". Schools that are sending kids to the hospitol generally have a serious drinking problem on campus that can be disruptive to non-drinking students. You will typically find articles in the newspaper quoting administration members about "the drinking problem" at schools where it is an issue.</p>
<p>Many schools know their surveyed "binge drinking" rates, but generally choose not to make that information available.</p>
<p>I think that how much this matters depends partly on why you choose not to drink. For example, if you believe that drinking is morally wrong and that you do not want to be associated with anyone who drinks, you had better pick your schools very carefully - such views will limit your friend selection and social options immensely at many schools.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if you don't mind people who drink in moderation, and simply choose not to drink, yourself, you almost certainly will make friends and the drinking culture will matter less. That said, it will probably still matter, just less.</p>
<p>Masha - students who don't drink do lots of the same things as students who do:
Go to movies, plays, sporting events, church, volunteering, read books, study, go to parties (yes, you can go to parties - and have fun - even if you aren't drinking), go clubbing, go out to dinner, go ice skating, or bowling, or hiking. There is SO much to do in college, really everyone can find something they'll like to do.</p>
<p>I don't mind people who drink in moderation, but I don't want to drink underage personally. I don't believe that drinking is morally wrong, but I think it is wrong to drink just to get drunk, and I want to avoid people who do that. I know there is a lot of drinking at any school, but which of the schools I listed have a lot of social opportunities for non-drinkers?</p>
<p>There are plenty of schools where drinking is not the dominant social culture.</p>
<p>Here are the most recent survey results from the COFHE survey at Swarthmore. COFHE is the group of 30 or so most prestigious schools in the country, including Stanford, Rice, Duke, Princeton, and UWash from your list. All of the other COFHE schools have this kind of data if they chose to publish it.</p>
<p>This list is the class year followed by the % who haven't drunk in the last year, followed by the % who haven't drunk in last 30 days.</p>
<p>Freshmen: 30%, 43%
Sophmores: 16%, 35%
Sophmores: 16%, 30%
Seniors: 11%, 22%</p>
<p>The other number is the percentage of students reporting "binge drinking" in the last two weeks. Binge drinking is defined as consuming 5 or more drinks in a row.</p>
<p>The national average is 44%, which is high enough for drinking to be disruptive for the low to moderate drinkers on a campus. At 44%, you would feel like the campus drinks a LOT. National average for residential fraternity members is 79%. National average for fraternity members is 65%. A low binge drinking school would be down in the 30% range, which is where I think Swarthmore falls.</p>
<p>BTW, as you do your search, keep in mind that the verb "party" is a euphemism for drinking in college lingo. </p>
<p>Of the schools you listed, my guess is that Stanford would be among the lowest. It is a western school, where drinking rates tend to be lower. And, it has a huge percentage of non-white students, groups that tend to binge drink far less. But, I don't have any first hand knowlege of Stanford, so those are just educated hunches.</p>
<p>See, this may seem like a contradiction to you, but I'd say most, if not all of those schools have tons of things for non-drinkers to do. Yet, drinking is still a big part of campus life. Your best bet is to do an overnight at schools to really get a feel for what goes on.</p>
<p>University of Chicago probably has less of a drinking culture, although when I was in law school there we managed to do quite a bit of it! What is it they say about U of Chicago- "where fun goes to die"?</p>
<p>I've heard that expression. A really good friend is going to Chicago this fall. Does anyone else agree with interesteddad about Stanford? Thanks.</p>
<p>
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all of those schools have tons of things for non-drinkers to do
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</p>
<p>Of course. But, that's not really the issue. It is one of critical mass. </p>
<p>Are there enough non-drinkers or moderate drinkers so that the campus doesn't feel like an alcohol haze on weekends? It's all well and good to say there are things to do, but if half the people in your dorm are falling down drunk three nights a week, it has an impact on the college experience. </p>
<p>The big problem is that heavy drinkers impact the campus far in excess of their numbers, because they make themselves so visible.</p>
<p>right now 60 minutes is doing a segment on teen drinking. what they reported is that 90% of all underage drinking is done by binge drinkers.</p>
<p>interesteddad - I completely agree with you. I was just trying to answer the poster's question: "which of the schools I listed have a lot of social opportunities for non-drinkers?"
The answer is, all of them.</p>
<p>I know a girl that goes to Notre Dame and does not care for it because of the party scene. She feels left out because she wants to be sober! I also know a girl now at IU, a big party school. She hated dorm life because of the continuous atmosphere of drinking, partying, vomitting, you get the picture. She actually joined a sober sorority to get away from it and loves it now. I have a son that is very against drinking and doesn't really care to be around those that do. He has found much to do at his school and many other kids in the same boat. It seems to be that if you want to be sober, there are others like you at most schools, big and small. Seek them out. Also, most kids I know in college do not feel the pressure to conform to peers. They say that is high school stuff!</p>
<p>Where does your son go to school?</p>
<p>Butler is the school I am talking about for that son. It's in Indianapolis, IN. About 4,000 students is all but we are very impressed with the education he is getting. There is always a ton to do especially with downtown Indy just 5 minutes away. My son couldn't be happier, it's been a perfect fit for him.</p>
<p>masha, when I went to Hopkins a lifetime ago (when drinking at 18 was still legal), there was a primarily non-party environment. Greek life was very limited, and partying till you passed out was rare. There was no peer pressure to drink. Reunions have seemed to show that this still holds.</p>
<p>Maybe I should add JHU to my list. I want to go pre-med, and I've heard they're great for that. I have also heard that it is really cut-throat, though.</p>